Kemi Badenoch: Diasporan identity, ambition and reality, by Ademola Ebenezer Adewusi
“Everything flows; nothing remains. Everything moves; nothing is still. Everything passes away; nothing lasts”. Heraclitus
Kemi is a politician. Kemi was born to Nigerian parents. Kemi is British by birth. Most importantly, Kemi is in pole position to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. That is her diasporan identity; complex, fluid and instrumentalist. Kemi will do and say anything expedient to her ambition. She is not an upstart in politics. She comes from a pedigreed family in political consciousness and activism. Her father, Dr. Femi Adegoke is a member of Afenifere who supported the call for secession by Sunday Igboho in 2021. She knows the game of politics, optics and agenda shaping. From Wimbledon to Victoria Island and Essex; Kemi did not arrive on the stage of British politics by happenstance. Replete with her stint at Mcdonalds, her diaspora identity is the stuff of fairy tales.
Politicians study and master the art of public communication. Kemi is a class act in forcefully articulating her position. Described as “pugnacious” by the Financial Times, Kemi Badenoch has never shied from a public spat with anyone. She enjoys the spotlight that directness and controversies bring to her person and candidature at different points. She has owned the conservative platform to offer some of the most divisive views on race and ethnicity, treasury operations in the UK and recently, reparations. She edited parts of the online conservative magazine and she used the position to promote views that resonate with her political trajectory. Her ascendancy has been parallel to the renaissance of British nationalism, occasioned and crested by BREXIT. She referred to the call for reparation as “nations attempting to guilt-trip the United Kingdom”. She dumbed down to say the British were a force for good in most of the colonised territories. Kemi is not a stranger to controversy. She hugs the limelight, even in the absurd.
Clearly, these assertions are divergent from the earlier versions of Kemi Badenoch who rallied the diasporans of African and Nigerian descent to vote for her as their voice. Each individual owns, develops and projects whatever part of their identity that guarantees survival at every stage of Maslow’s hierarchy. Politicians morph into whatever is required to win votes and achieve their objective. Kemi now represents the “white” Essex constituency. With little or no need to pander to the black voter demographic, her views have become more caustic. At this point in her career, she needs to be more nationalistic in outlook and political signalling. She needs to read the nation and speak to the new reality of British politics, occasioned by BREXIT, Rishi Sunak’s emergence as Prime Minister and the trepidation of the British public at having a “Black” Prime Minister. She clinched the leadership position of the Tories in her second contest, nothing will stop her now. She must appeal to and prey on the fears of the British public. One of her friends opined that “It was always totally obvious that politics was her main game and the focus of her life.” She has her eyes on the prize. She already set the tone for her candidature: she will not be bullied by anyone, especially badly-governed nations attempting to use her ancestry as a PR tool for “famzing” a future PM. She is signalling that she will not do “blacks” or diasporans any favour. After all, ethnic minorities hardly enjoy any privilege when a member of their demographics attains political ascendancy. Aside lighting a Hindi lantern at the steps of Number 10 Downing Street, Indians got no favours from Rishi Sunak. All of it is political expediency.
Kemi’s vituperations about Nigeria should be viewed from the prism of political instrumentalism. She is utilising her platform as the leader of the Tories to characterise Nigeria, infusing hyperbole and bone-chilling narratives. The foundations of systemic decay and anomie that she paints are true but inserting herself into the mosaic of deprivation and oppression that she painted is disingenuous and manipulative at best. But, this is politics! And it is high stakes politics.
Throwing Nigeria under the bus is a national pastime for Nigerians. Even “lifetime career” politicians like Rotimi Amaechi eventually see the rot in the system they superintended and orchestrated to their advantage. In the eye of the average Nigerian, “favour” and “corruption” are interchangeable concepts depending on who benefits and how. Even Kemi Badenoch is not immune to hypocrisy. Kemi hobnobs with the members of the Polo Club on Awolowo Road when she comes to Nigeria. She mingles with the same elite class with whom she attended the International School, University of Lagos. These are the same children of the Uber rich politicians and leaders who shared her childhood in the then exclusive Victoria Island neighbourhood. The hypocrisy of enjoying the company of the uber rich who perpetrate and perpetuate the same system you criticise is ludicrous. While she doesn’t owe Nigeria any favours; her silence when she enjoys the trappings of stolen money equivocates her emergency intervention in Nigeria’s matters.
Nigeria’s response to Kemi Badenoch has been knee-jerk and unscripted. It should have been left to Nigeria’s elite crop of diplomats, whose nuanced understanding of her position could have been used to address the matter in a more professional manner. Nigeria owes a duty to reply Kemi. However, Nigeria’s reply could have been better delivered. Asking her to change her name was swashbuckling and reckless from the Vice President. A more context-savvy speaker could have connected the dots between her pedigree, privileged as it is to her current political ambitions and found a positive link to her Nigerian identity without asking her to shed her ancestry. Shettima could have been more textured; but it seems he is cut of the same cloth as Kemi Badenoch!
A few people have opined that Nigeria should not have responded. Same people defend their local heroes and politicians all over social media. Same people complain about being profiled at airports all over the world. Yet, this same demographic close their eyes to the power of political communication and its implications on the economics, diplomacy and image of their country. Kemi Badenoch currently has a platform, capable of doing damage to Nigeria’s external identity and image. I have not heard her talk about the spiralling knife crime in London and the unfolding hate against immigrants and people of colour in the UK.
Kemi hugs the limelight. She says it as it is, when she needs to. We hope her abrasive style achieves its purpose.
After all, Kemi is a politician!
–Adewusi a public affairs analyst is an International Relations scholar
